Dorge ran his hands inches over the boy's injury while using [Search Particulate]. He had to focus hard, as the crowd of Monster's surrounding the crying child made him nervous. It was mighty hard to find garbage in people. Dorge just wanted to a helpful Monster for his community and make it better how he could.

"There. It is right there." he said while activating [Send to Mound]. He stumbled from the pressure, but hung on because he wanted to save the boy's leg. It had been a heck of a day sweeping.

The boy screamed out as buckshot disappeared from his knee. His mother pet his purple furred head, rare in the community, and told him everything was going to be OK, Dorge was there to help. That made Dorge a very happy Monster.

Small malformed metal balls popped from the boy's knee and dropped to the floor. The thing was, the entire community was built into and on top of the massive garbage mound. If he tried hard enough, he could place it exactly where he wanted to in the community. Even Dorge wanted to show off just a bit for everyone watching. Showing them the bullets would make everyone relax.

The crowd of [Garbage Garmen] cheered into the night as they noticed the buckshot rolling around the ground. Another one of their youths had been used as target practice by some scary Adventurer's blowing off steam. The boy would need treatment, but with the material now pulled out thanks to Dorge's special Skill, hopefully he would be able to walk properly once again.

Dorge staggered, and a pair of red-furred hands pulled him back upright before he could collapse. Spending all day sweeping and searching for Relics was tiring work.

"Thanks, Borge. Dorge is tired." He said to his brood-brother who held him up.

"Dorge work too much. Dorge need to take day off." Borge grumbled into his ear as the crowd of Garbage Garmen's came to say their thanks.

Hands of all colours came to squeeze his shoulder and tussle his fur. It was their way. Dorge was still a young Garbage Garmen by all standards, and even though he did right by his community, the old timers treated him like a silly youth. They couldn't offer gifts or payment, and Dorge didn't expect it either. Their thanks and the prosperity of the community was enough for him.

"Drink. Found it today." Borge, much larger, pushed a crushed drink carton into his hand.

Dorge opened the container and collapsed into a tattered lawn chair and sighed while looking around the mound. Lifting up hunks of doors or cardboard, many of them crawled into their hollowed out hovels to rest for the night. Around the mound, young Garbage Garmen played with dirty, thrown out repurposed toys. His people had done the best with what they had.

The floor was compacted rubber bits from tires collected over the years topped with a mosaic of tile and laminate. They even had a working fountain made of cheap plastic in the center of their square in the shape of a fish. Benches were held together with reused nails, and potted plants flourished after being brought back from the edge of death. Winding paths wound round the mound to lead to the different hovels. It was beautiful in its own way, Dorge supposed. A community made from trash. On top of it, and inside of it. Home, at least, and all the Garbage Garmen had ever known.

"You think again?" Borge asked.

"Dorge is always think." He sipped back the warm chocolate milk Borge gave him. Still on the right side of fresh, if barely.

"What think of?" Borge asked with a tilted head.

"Dorge think of what we could have," He looked around and made sure no one was listening. What he was really thinking was considered sacrilege. "If there is more to garbage."

"Dump is home." Borge said seriously.

"No," Dorge shook his head and thought of how to put the words so that his brother could understand. "Home is family. Garbage Garmen coming together is home. The Dump is just a place."

"What Marnia think?"

Before Dorge could answer, a young yellow Garbage Garmen came sprinting up on large feet. They grew awkwardly, all gangly limbs with over sized hands and feet before they filled out. It was one of the things that humans always poked at when comparing them to animals. Dorge didn't feel like an animal.

"Dorge! Dorge!" The young panted for moment. "It's time. Me 'ma told me to come get you!"

He shot to his feet, looking in the direction of his hovel.

"She's laying our children?" He swelled with pride. All his work had paid off. Countless shifts and sifting through the trash in the city to get the one hundred Relics that Marnia needed to give birth to a new batch of children. His family was quickly becoming one the largest in the community. The last Relic had been the tip his friend Alex had given him. [Growth Goop] had been swallowed jar and all by Marnia to Dorge's great delight.

"You have to come now!" The boy tugged on Dorge's hand. "She said it's going to be a massive hatching!"

"Massive?" Borge asked. "What mean?"

"She said the Relic you gave her…did something. I don't know, but come quick."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Let us go. I need see my brood-brother children." Borge said seriously.

Before Dorge or the boy could dart off towards his hovel, Borge scooped them both up in his massive arms and started sprinting. Standing at just over five feet tall, everyone said Borge was the biggest and strongest Garbage Garmen ever. That was why he was the head watchman of their Guard.

Dorge flopped in his brother's arm as Borge made quick work of the winding rubber roads. As they approached, he heard the screams of Marnia. It made a funny sinking feeling in his stomach. She had never screamed like that before. What was wrong? Did the Relic do something different to their brood? Had Dorge made a mistake by trusting the delivery boy?

Alex forced himself to unclench his body as he was pulled through the unspace. A cluster of thousands of metallic cubes slotted and arranged themselves in a never-ending complex pattern, and thankfully his path wove him through unsquished. Under a massive rug he stretched as static electricity pulled his hair straight up in every direction. Breathing deep, he forced himself to stay calm.

"Zen," He said to himself. "You're the flipping Zen master. Don't think of the meaning of existence in an unlimited fractal of universal possibility. You are one of many. The one Zen Master."

It was tricky. He had to allow the wash of multiversal awareness in from [Funamental Physician] without scrambling his brain while also not getting distracted by the wonders of the unspace. Easier said than done. How often did anyone witness a planet of sea monkeys frolicking while an infinite fractal sung something like Shakespeare but not quite a moment later?

Figuring out the Skill had taken all night of deliveries and several faceplants. The first step was letting [Funamental Physician]'s ability in without turning him into a blubbering mess. Eventually, through an approximation of meditation and acceptance of existential dread, the violent assault of infinity possibility could roll over him. Through him. Around the part of his brain that turned him to a shaking mess. He could plunge into its depths if he wanted to, but with focus it was just there, ready and waiting to scare the shit out of him as he confronted the minutiae of his existence.

With that out of the way, it was just pure guts to try the Skill again. And if he had anything, it was the guts and stupidity of a himbo.

"Now gliiiiide." Alex continued, pushing out ice skating style with closed eyes.

The first push was always awkward, he'd learned. His foot met nothing. But then the Skill kicked in, and miraculously, he slid in a direction.

Like a diver underwater, the stroke of his foot sent ripples through the void, and though he felt the full of the cosmic current that always brought him along to the location of his delivery, he diverged on the path laid forth. Slightly to the left he went against the tug of the unspace current. He pushed again, this time with his left foot, and he moved forward with gritted teeth.

"Ooooh yeah," he said. "It's all coming up Alex, baby."

Finding his rhythm, the unspace pulled him along through its chaotic landscape while he pushed against it. He couldn't move much, but this was new territory. His Skills brushed against a place no mortal was ever meant to push, and even though he looked like a flopping frog in deep water, he beamed and tadpoled his way just off the path he was meant to go.

It wasn't the only use of the Skill, either. Through the shift he'd also realized [Planar Skating] made him an unstoppable bulwark of a delivery boy. With the right progression and practice, he'd be able to string along all his abilities to deliver under any circumstance.

"I AM DELIVERY EMBODIED." He grunted and flopped in the air, celebrating himself.

With this, the increase of finding Brody in the unspace was a true possibility. The Skill only allowed himself to veer slightly off course now, but with a few levels…

Alex scanned the infinite realm of the unspace and all its oddities. From street rat barely able to scrape by, to delivery boy, to absorber of knowledge of infinite realms and possibly the most fantastic delivery boy in the city. He was proud of himself. For his development and his grit. All his hard work was paying off. So, he looked upon the unspace and screamed his challenge.

"I WILL FIND YOU BRODY. AND YOU, MR. MYSTICAL. NO ONE SCREWS WITH ALEX AND GETS AWAY FROM IT."

And he meant it. Surviving on the cold streets of Toronto had lit an undying fire in his belly.

He sailed through the unspace and skated against its currents while sentient beings stared in awe at the sight of the mortal. The one who did push against the underbelly of reality. With a pair of giant binoculars, Goop Goobles fishing for emotions made manifest dropped their stale, hot beer to watch Alex work his magic.

"By golly that mortal has done it. They've done it!" One of them said in their unintelligible language of clicks and thought bubbles.

Just as he was starting to get the hang of it, Alex's trip through the unspace ended. The Goop Goobles watched his form collapse in on itself as it was propelled back into one of the realities. For millennia the dream monsters would tell the tale of the mortal who pushed against the unspace and grunted to itself.

Alex exited the portal and landed strong in front of the derelict Honest Eds. It had been a while since he'd walked past it, but it was still as glorious as he remembered.

Slightly northwest of downtown proper, Honest Ed's took up an entire block of the city, and even the wisest Adventurer's avoided its Dungeon depths. Comprised of several low-rise warehouses interconnected by metal tunnels and winding staircases, it had once been host to the best thrifting experience in the world. One could find anything in the place, from cheap bread and discount but serviceable groceries, to clothing, shoes, sewing kits, appliances, and even motors. Everything had been for sale for a discount on the uneven floors. Since the System came, and the crabby Boss took over, the only thing available was terror and endless hallways. Alex always wished he could have seen it in its former glory, but a delivery through its halls was a good second prize.

"Maybe I'll ask for a piece of the sign as a tip…Maybe a bulb?" He said as he wove through civilians snapping pictures under the most famous part of the Dungeon. It's sign.

The sign wrapped around both corners, Massive and gaudy and extremely bright orange. The curly letters that spelled out the namesake had faded to yellow. Hundreds of dead bulbs lined the frame. Some were shattered or missing, but a few still flickered to illuminate the ruin of the place. Under the glow the words Honest Ed's stretched. The System had burned cities, rewritten everything, but even it couldn't erase the massive store's need to be admired.

He was eager to get in and start tearing through the place. Both to experience the store, and work on his new Skill combinations with [Planar Skating].

"Is that guy going in there? Is he fricken insane? With a pizza?" An onlooker called.

Alex [Investigated] the entrance but didn't stop to respond. He just pushed through the giant green door and plunged into the darkness of Honest Ed's.

[Honest Ed's - Silver Ranked Dungeon]

[Current Occupants: 0]

[Time Since Last Defeat: 15 Years, 6 Months, 20 Days]

[Deliver the Pizza to the Customer - Time Remaining - 56:12]

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